Gulf Construction Online - Towering complex

Qatar

The City Centre expansion involves the construction of five

Towering complex

01 March 2006

Work is well under way on the Phases two and three of the City Centre expansion in Doha, which involves the construction of five five-star hotel towers with a total built-up area of 430,000 sq m.

The towers – ranging from 48 to 50 storeys in height – rise above three basement and eight podium levels. They are directly linked to an existing mall – one of the biggest in the Gulf, which was built under the first phase of the mega development.
The towers include five-star guest rooms, furnished apartments, restaurants, retail areas, conferencing rooms and a sports club, among other facilities.
Phase Two covers the western section of the development and comprises two 50-storey hotels which will be operated by the US-based Marriott International, including a 250-room Marriott Renaissance hotel and a 200-room Marriott Courtyard Tower.
Al Habtoor Engineering (HEE), the main contractor on the project, started work on this phase in April last year, and has already completed 18 levels of these high-rises.
Phase Three, which covers the eastern side of the development, includes two 50-storey towers – housing a 250-room hotel operated by Hong-Kong’s Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts and another five-star facility managed by Rotana Tower – as well as a 48-storey Merweb Hotel tower. Work on this phase was launched last October. HEE is working the cores of the towers, which are currently at ground floor level, following completion of the raft foundations. Structural completion is envisaged by early next year.
HEE was invited by Al Rayyan Tourism Investment, one of the biggest developers in Qatar for the largest project currently under way in the country because of its reputation for completing fast-track projects on time and within budget, according to Nasr A Nasr, area manager in Qatar for HEE.
With no details and no documents in hand, HEE came up with the proposal to implement the project on the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) basis – implemented for the first time in Qatar on this project, he says.
Nasr explains: “The basic principle of GMP is that the client and the contractor agree on the area and what has to be built. So we reached an agreement on the total area by way of areas of hotels, podium, etc. for this project. Based on this, we came up with a budget and concurred on the GMP with the client. As a contractor, we assist the designers with the design and value engineer it at the same time. Value engineering has involved redesigning the columns, slabs and rafts to offer cost savings to the client. Now we have to maintain it within the price limit. So basically what GMP means is that if the construction cost exceeds this value, we – the contractor – have to pay for it.
“It’s a risk, no doubt, besides being a huge exercise in planning, management and cost control, as we have to be very careful and also maintain the quality and safety at the same time. This pioneering initiative in the region has not only ensured the smooth implementation of the entire project from the start, but has also resulted in all parties concerned working as a team, thus minimising disputes.”
Each podium has a footprint of 27,000 sq m. The buildings comprise reinforced concrete structures, which are externally clad with a glazed curtain walling system. To help speed up work on the project, HEE is using fully automated hydraulic climbing forms for the cores of the structures and aluminium table forms for the slabs.
The challenges faced by Nasr and his team can be judged from the fact that while the Shangri-La Hotel Dubai project took 23 months to execute, this project involving – five such hotels – has a deadline of barely 24 months to complete.
Elaborating on the other challenges faced on the project, Nasr says: “Besides the timeframe for completion – which poses a tremendous pressure on the planning, procurement and execution phases of the project, the main problem we are facing is in procurement of the basic raw materials such as concrete – as most of the readymix companies are very small – and construction materials like timber. This problem is further compounded by the fact that construction activity is booming in Qatar. A basic item like cement was a rare commodity here until a few weeks ago. In addition, we had to struggle as the local market is small and lacks the infrastructure and the support system that Dubai enjoys.
“This engineering marvel, which is a design-and-build job, is the biggest project awarded to HEE outside the UAE. It will be one of the landmark projects and another architectural masterpiece in Doha,” he adds.
The first phase of this fast-track project is due to be completed in June 2007 while the second phase will be completed by October 2007.
There have been delays in implementing the project, which Nasr attributes to the late handover of the site to the contractor. He explains: “Although the project was awarded to us in August 2004, the second phase was handed to us in April 2005 while the third phase was handed over as recently as October 2005 -11 months late.
“Currently, we have nearly 1,500 employees working on the project and we expect this to reach 3,000 – in addition to the 2,000 workers of the subcontractors – when the project reaches its peak.”
Canada’s Cansult is the project manager on the City Centre expansion while HOK, also of Canada, drew up the masterplan and is the main consultant.
In order to carry out this mammoth task, Nasr’s core team comprises only the best in the related fields for the project. “I have a very good team and it’s only because of them that we have been able to successfully take on this challenging project and reach this stage,” says Nasr, who is an effective team leader capable of managing a diverse workforce on construction engineering projects.